Jean Hardouin

Who was Jean Hardouin?

Jean Hardouin, French classical scholar, was born at Quimper in Brittany.

Having acquired a taste for literature in his father's book-shop, he sought and obtained admission into the order of the Jesuits in around 1662. In Paris, where he went to study theology, he ultimately became librarian of the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in 1683, and he died there.

His first published work was an edition of Themistius, which included no fewer than thirteen new orations. On the advice of Jean Garnier he undertook to edit the Natural History of Pliny for the Dauphin series, a task which he completed in five years. Aside from editorial work, he became interested in numismatics, and published several learned works on this subject, all marked by a determination to be different from other interpreters. His works on this topic include: Nummi antiqui populorum et urbium illustrati, Antirrheticus de nummis antiquis coloniarum et municipiorum, and Chronologia Veteris Testamenti ad vulgatam versionem exacta et nummis illustrata.

Hardouin was appointed by the ecclesiastical authorities to supervise the Conciliorum collectio regia maxima; but he was accused of suppressing important documents and including apocryphal ones, and by the order of the parlement of Paris the publication of the work was delayed.